After an emotional, all-night session in which UC Berkeley students pleaded for their Cloyne Court co-op to remain intact, the Berkeley Student Cooperative voted at 5:30 a.m. Friday to evict nearly every resident and transform Cloyne into a drug-free, academic-themed house.

From her San Diego home, Madelyn Bennett tracked the vote that came nearly four years to the day after her then-21-year-old son, John Gibson, overdosed at Cloyne and suffered severe brain damage. He lives with his parents now, unable to speak or walk.

"This vote will prevent other families from going through this," Bennett said. "Nobody wants to lose a kid that they love."

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But Bennett, who sued the Berkeley Student Cooperative and settled for an amount just under $1 million, has been vilified on Facebook by some Cloyne residents for holding the housing cooperative accountable.

One student calling himself "James Almost" sent her an expletive-laced e-mail after the vote, saying, "You personally have ruined the life of 150 people."

The Berkeley Student Cooperative oversees 20 residences with 1,352 students, including 150 at Cloyne, one of the largest co-ops in the country.

But Michelle Nacouzi, a Cal senior and president of the Berkeley Student Cooperative, said that the vote protects the co-op system against future risk and that she was impressed that students agreed to the proposal that was highly controversial for them.

"What was at stake was a potential future lawsuit that could have serious financial losses and could affect our insurability," she said.

The 29-member board of mostly students uses representative voting, and the final tally was 903 to 449 for the change.